Perpetual Social Chair

Prepare yourself...this is a long post!!

In college I was the social chair for my sorority. As you would most likely assume, that job entailed planning the date parties, social events, functions, etc. I may have graduated college 4.5 years ago (is that right?! Yikes!) but I still find myself the planner and organizer for a lot our sorority get togethers as well as showers, engagement parties, etc. Luckily, I love that kind of thing.

I think the reason that I enjoy event planning/coordination so much is that it combines all of my favorite things: friends, food, projects, cocktails, entertaining, themes, decor, usually Hobby Lobby and a wonderful celebration. I recently hosted a couples' baby shower for one of my best friends and her husband, and I'm kind of sad it's over! We had beautiful weather and a great group of friends and family to share the night with. Below you can see how it all came together...

The Planning Process

First things first, we needed a theme. Confession: I love themes. Back in college, my sorority sisters and I would often times dress up based on a theme. For some reason things are exponentially more fun when everyone is dressed alike.

Anyways, this being a couples' baby shower, we wanted something that the fellas would enjoy. I mean, let's be honest, have you ever heard a guy get excited about a baby shower? Yeah, me neither. But we wanted them to have as much fun as the girls, so we decided to make it a tailgate theme. How can a guy not like any kind of party if it involves tailgating? Well, since it was a baby shower and not a college football game, the theme was Pink vs. Blue. Janna and Evan didn't find out if  Baby Cogs was a boy or girl, so we decided that people could wear the color based on which "team they were on" or whether they thought the baby would be male or female. Then, we would  have games battling the pink team versus the blue team. First item, checked off the list.

I definitely can't take credit for the theme. As a matter of fact, if you search Etsy or Pinterest, you will see that the Pink vs. Blue theme is actually pretty popular! That provided me with a lot of ideas and inspiration as well as my invites. I purchased the invite on Etsy, and the vendor personalized the template and then sent a PDF and I printed as many as needed. Looking back, now that I use Publisher (I'll get to that later) I would probably make them myself if I did it all over again. Here are the finished invites:

The Section/Row/Seat was Janna's due date!

I've got to say, Pinterest is the best and worst thing to happen to party planning. It's great because it's full of ideas and DIY projects. However, it makes you feel like you should quit your job in order to actually be able to make each individualized, football chocolate covered strawberry and seven layer dip that is identical to Arrowhead stadium. I like to use it for ideas, but not as my party planning bible. However, it gave me a head start on my menu. I decided that being a tailgating party, our menu should include tailgating food (duh.)

Our menu consisted of:

• Peanuts
• Cheese, Carmel, and Kettle Popcorn
• Cocktail Meatballs
• Buffalo Chicken Dip
• Chicken Enchilada Dip
• Veggies
• Pulled Pork Sliders
• Baked Beans
• Pasta Salad
• Cupcakes

The next part is my favorite, the decor and projects. My plan typically starts very grandiose, then is slowly trimmed back when reality sets in. I ended up completing the following projects:

1) Pink and blue banner. I really like making pennant banners. I made one for my good friend, Katie's bridal shower, and one for my cousin's wife, Ashley's bridal shower. 

Partial photo of the banner from Ashley's shower (note to self, take pics of the things you make)

The inspiration for Janna and Evan's banner came from Giuliana & Bill's baby shower. They had a pink and blue reveal party, and these adorable napkins:

 I changed this to " j + e = 3"

You can see the banner above the snack table.

2) Pink & Blue letters. You can't miss these babies. My uncle started making 5' letters for my cousin's graduation a few years back. Now my dad and uncle are making them for birthdays, showers, anniversaries, and weddings...

My parents graciously allowed us to host the shower at their home, and as soon as my dad heard the theme, the letters were his first thought. My dad and uncle have made most all of the letters from other events they've done, so all we had to do was paint them pink and blue. We also had the people wearing pink take a picture with the "PINK" letters and blue with the "BLUE."

 3) PVC Goalpost. Tip: If you want a guy to help with shower/event preparations, ask him to build something sports-related. Again, this idea comes from Pinterest but it just took about $15 in PVC piping and a can of yellow spray paint. We put the gifts under the goalpost, then used it for a game later on (oh, I'll get to that.)

4) Wives' Tale List. Since all of the guests dressed in pink or blue depending on whether they thought Baby Cogs was a boy or girl, I thought it would be fun to see what the Wives' Tales predicted. Though they were split, the majority predicted girl!

5) Due Date Calendar. My cousin Mary did this at a baby shower for my cousin Katie, and I thought it was such a cute idea! We asked the guests to bring $1 for the baby due date pool. I created a calendar, and people signed their name on their guess for due date, and put their money in Baby Cogs' College Fund.

6) Football Wine Vases. I found this idea on Pinterest and it was probably the easiest project I completed. All that you need are empty wine bottles, a sink to soak the bottles, and a white paint pen. Being that my husband loves red wine, we had plenty of wine bottles to make this happen.

7) Baby Love. Again, saw this great idea on Etsy. You come up with a wish list for the baby, and have all of the guests fill it out. I loved this idea, but decided to make it myself instead of buy it. This is how I came to know my friend, Microsoft Publisher. It took me a few hours one evening to get acquainted, but I think they turned out really nice. The questions included: 

• I hope you learn ______
• I hope you aren't afraid ______
• I hope you love ______
• I hope you laugh _______
• I hope you never forget _______

At the end of the night Janna read through them and there notes are funny, touching and everything in between. I think it will be a great keepsake for Baby Cogs! (Again forgot to take a good photo, grrr)

8) Diaper Cake. This was my first attempt at a diaper cake, and it wasn't as easy as I thought. I bought a cake base, 80 diapers (size 1 and 2), a big bottle of baby powder, LOTS of rubber bands, purple and white ribbon, 3 K-State Onesies and a pair of K-State booties (do you see a trend here?) 

9) Diaper Wreath. I had diapers and ribbon left over, and happened to have a wreath base that I didn't use for my wedding. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a letter "C" (for Baby Cogs). I looked up how to make a (mini) diaper wreath, and viola! 

10) Monthly Onesies. This was my favorite project and my gift to Janna, Evan and Baby Cogs. I definitely took a risk since I've never done anything like this before, but I think they turned out really cute. It's time consuming but, surprisingly, not too difficult! Here's what you need:

• 12 Onesies - This part was surprisingly difficult. You have to keep in mind that the baby will be growing so you need varying sizes. I also got some long-sleeved onesies for the colder months. 
• Inkjet Transfer Paper - Important Note: You don't need one page per onesie. I was actually able to print 4 transfers per page, so I could have gone with a smaller package. 
• A computer with design/publishing software (I also think there are some freebies out there on the web)
• An Iron

The first thing that you need to do is create your design. Janna and Evan are doing an elephant theme for their nursery since it's a neutral palette. I did an old fashioned Google Image search and found a blue and orange elephant. I then spent a while finding fonts that I liked until I finally came up with this design:

Next, you need to flip your designs, so that it's the mirror image. When you iron on the transfers, they will then show up the correct direction. Tip: Onesies are really, really small. You don't want a transfer that will overwhelm the baby. I made mine 3 1/2" circles. Once you create the design once, you can just copy the whole thing and change the number. I was able to fit four circles to a page. Oh, and make sure you allow enough space, I believe the transfer recommends 1/4" to 1/2". 

Now it's time to print. Make sure you use a high quality ink jet. Most times the properties will actually have a "T-Shirt Transfer" option. I ended up having to reprint one page because I got too close to the margin and it cut off part of the circle (I guess it's a good thing that I bought more transfers than I needed!) 

Next, you get the onesies ready. Iron each of them, but make sure the steam setting is off. Once they are all prepared and wrinkle-free, it's time to transfer. Make sure you match each month with the corresponding onesie. Then also take a minute to figure out where you want to place the transfer. Finally, place the transfer on the onesie, making sure it is facing the correct direction, and iron for the time suggested on the transfer instructions (I believe for the size of my transfer I ironed for 30 seconds.) Make sure you are constantly moving the iron and covering the entire transfer. Once you finish, set it aside as the transfer needs to cool down before you remove it. They get hot!! After the transfer is completely cooled, slowly pull off the backing.  There you have your personalized monthly onesies!

Now, for the games. Again, with guys in mind, we didn't want the games to be {too} cheesy. Tyler helped me with the game plan (no pun intended) we ended up with two fun, unique games.

1) Heads Up - If you haven't purchased this app (it's just $.99!) and played this game, I would highly recommend it. It's similar to catch phrase, but the themes are a little bit more exciting. The player puts the phone on his/her forehead and his/her team attempts to explain that particular word. The idea is to guess as many words as possible in one minute. Since the game is on your phone, the group explaining the words is recorded on the phone camera. After the round is over, you can watch the team trying to explain the words. It's pretty entertaining! Anyways, we decided to take this idea and use baby words. We gave both Janna and Evan two stacks of index cards each, with words for them to guess.

We allowed each of them to pick four people to be on their corresponding team. Evan was on the pink team, so he found four people wearing pink and Janna was on the blue team, so she did the same for blue. The game was two rounds. The first round, the team would try to explain the word on the card and Evan or Janna would have to guess what they were illustrating. Whichever team guessed the most correct in two minutes, would win the round.

The second round the team could not use any words. They had to act out each word on the index card. That was really funny! We used words like:

• Dirty Diaper
• Breast Feed
• Diaper Bag
• Teething
• Breast Pump (Watching the guys trying to act this out was priceless)
• Burpring
• Crawling

2) Baby Bottle Chug - Yes, this is exactly how it sounds. We bought 10 baby bottles and filled 9 with beer (see, a game that guys can get on board with!) and we filled Janna's baby bottle with water. Again, Janna and Evan each picked four individuals (pink or blue) to be on each team. The premise of the game is similar to flip cup (this child is destined to be a Wildcat.) The first person on the team has to drink his or her entire bottle and slam it down. Then, the next person can start, they follow suit until it gets to the last person on each team. We purposefully put Janna and Evan on the end, as the anchors. After they finished their bottle, they had to kick it through the goalpost.The first team to finish, would win the game. It was a close match, but the pink team pulled through!

All in all it was a great night celebrating Janna, Evan and Baby Cogs. Here is a picture of my beautiful Chi O sisters from the shower:

Baby Cogs is finally here! Guston "Gus" Evan Coglizer was born October 28th and he sure is a cutie. Looking back at the pictures, most people guessed right. It was a boy!

House of Three Sheps

After nearly 11 months of marriage, my blog has a new name. I have to say, coming up with a new blog title was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Considering that my life now revolves around my husband, dog (Mini Australian Shepherd, get it?) and home remodeling projects, the name seems appropriate.

I'm working on two longer posts, but while I'm in the process, I want to share our latest room redo. Tyler and I have been on the go A LOT, so it was nice to have a productive weekend at home. I was in Vegas last week for a user group, and Tyler came to meet me for the weekend. On the subject of Las Vegas, if you are planning a trip and would like to see a show, stop looking and book tickets to Absinthe. It's a small, intimate, hilarious, show with a Cirque du Soleil feel in a tent outside of Caesar's Palace. The humor is a little bit inappropriate and off-beat, but what do you expect in Vegas?! As long as you aren't easily offended, I guarantee you will find the show incredibly amusing and equally hilarious.

Back to our project, anyone who knows me well, knows that I love K-State, football in particular. I would wake my lovely Chi O sisters up on gamedays in college playing the fight song. The reason I bring that up, is that deciding to stay home and work on our house rather than cheer on my Wildcats, was not an easy thing to do. BUT, we've come so far on the house and a work weekend was exactly what we needed.

My goal was to tackle the final room in our house, the guestroom that had become the ugly stepchild room. Ty and I recently purchased new bedroom furniture for our room, so the old dresser was stuck in the guestroom, next to the bed, taking up what little space we had. There were also scraps of projects left over from Janna and Evan's shower {one of my blog posts in progress}, a random assortment of wedding gifts that didn't have a home, as well as other odds and ends. Our guest room had become our catch-all room (which is what happens with no basement and no garage, i.e. no storage). My goal was to repaint, decorate, organize, and make the room livable.

I bought curtains for the guestroom months prior. The problem is that I'm very indecisive and for some reason I have a hard time branching out from gray when it comes to wall color. After spending quite a bit of time on Houzz, I found a teal/mint color that I fell in love with. It was a pastel, which coordinated with the bold, yellow/gold color of the curtains. We also bought a ceiling fan to replace the outdated light fixture (circa 1970s.)

I organized the gifts, (everything finally has a home!) cleaned out the room, and started painting. Disclaimer: I'm a terrible painter. I'm not very patient and cutting in = no fun. However, the guestroom is not very big, I was listening to the K-State game, and I was excited to be working on the neglected room. After about two hours of painting, and another few hours of waiting for the paint to dry, the transformation was semi-complete. It is pretty amazing what a change a fresh coat of paint will make.

I organized the bookshelves, Tyler hung the curtains, and I finally got to move our beautiful (do you sense the sarcasm?) K-State rocking chair out of my closet/dressing room, into the guestroom. The only thing that was left was to find a headboard, or something to go above the bed. I spent a lot of time on Pinterest, looking for headboard inspiration.

 

I went to a few different antique shops as I wanted to find something unique. After the antique shops I went to Home Goods, TJ Maxx, Pottery Barn, Z Gallerie, and World Market. Nothing. I think the problem is that I had an idea in mind, and nothing was wowing me. Well, I finally decided to stop into Gordman's, as a last resort, and low and behold I found what I was looking for. My mom and friend Janna actually asked if I made it because it matched the curtains so well. (Score!) And the best part is, I bought it for $50.

Below are before and afters of the (now) lovely guestroom.

Bed Before

Bed After

Window Before

Window After

After

This is my great-grandparents' dresser that my dad helped me refinish a few years ago

 Also, I have to give Ty a shoutout because the yard looks great, too!

 I'm looking forward to a fun, non-productive weekend since we will be celebrating Tyler's birthday.

Until next time...

10 Months

My how time flies... Tyler and I have been married 10 months (today) and I really couldn't tell you where the time has gone. Having that said, I also can't believe all that we've done and all that has changed over the past year, or 10 months really.

I've taken on a new role at Perceptive Software, which has been quite the ride. I've been involved with several recent acquisitions as well as a multi-million dollar project which has taken most of my time and energy since mid-June. I've been to Chicago, Scottsdale, Lexington, the UK, Dallas and Minneapolis for work. Tyler and I also spent 5 days in Cabo with friends in April as well as a long weekend in California (Los Angeles and La Jolla) in August. We still have Vegas and New Orleans on the docket before the end of the year. It doesn't feel like a lot of travel, but when you add a honeymoon in St. Lucia last December, I guess that's quite a bit of traveling for a ten month span. Traveling is something Tyler and I both have a passion for, and we are already planning trips to Nashville, Austin and Colorado next year.

Ty started a new job in May with Ceva, a companion animal pharmaceutical company. It's been a great transition and he's really enjoying the new gig.

Our house is a work in progress, but we've come a long way. So far we (and I use "we" loosely, I really mean Tyler) have completed the following projects:

-Knocked down the popcorn ceilings in the living room and kitchen
-Added can lights and updated all light fixtures
-Put in a new sliding door
-Painted the kitchen
-Refinished the cabinets
-Installed new backsplash
-New kitchen appliances
-New cabinet hardware
-Redid all cabinet shelving
-Redid the kitchen countertops
-Painted the living room
-Painted our bedroom
-New bedroom furniture
-Redid all shelving in Tyler's closet
-Mounted a TV in our room
-Turned our third bedroom into my walk-in closet
-New driveway
-New stamp and stain patio
-New vanity in the bathroom
-Painted the bathroom

Here are some photos of our bedroom, it's pretty much finished (is anything really ever done??)

We still have quite a bit to do, but our house really feels like a home and I am so impressed with all the work Tyler has done.

Tyler is quite the cook! The other night he made his famous Gumbo and it was delicious. As I mentioned, we're going to New Orleans in November, for our anniversary trip. I surprised Tyler with the location, because he surprised me with our honeymoon location. Ty loves Cajun food, and the Gumbo Festival happens to be going on while we are there. So we're getting excited for Cajun culture and more importantly, Cajun food. Here is his recipe in his own words:

Tyler’s Cajun Gumbo

This recipe feeds about 4-6 people.  Double for larger groups.

Ingredients:

Meat

This is where you can add/omit anything that you don’t want.  I have found that sausage can make or break this recipe, so make sure you find a decent andouille for this recipe.

·         1 ½ lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into 1-inch chunks (I prefer chicken thighs, but you can use chicken breast if desired. Just note that dark meat will be more tender in a stew)

·         ½ lb of shrimp, deveined w/ the shell off

·         ½ lb cured andouille sausage, sliced. Smoked and cured andouille works well.

Roux

·         ½ cup flour

·         ½ cup vegetable oil (I put a few tbsp of sausage grease in the measuring cup, then fill the rest with veggie oil)

Stock

·         6 cups LOW SODIUM chicken stock (Anything but low sodium will turn out too salty)

Vegetables

·         1 large onion, diced (white or vidalia – whichever floats your boat)

·         4 ribs celery, sliced

·         2 bell peppers, diced (I like to use green and red for color, but any color will do)

·         1 small head of garlic, peeled and minced

·         1 red jalapeno, minced (leave in seeds and ribs if you want to turn up the heat. If you use a green jalapeno, I would suggest removing the seeds and ribs)

·         ¼ lb okra, sliced (I leave this out – the choice is yours)

·         Small bit of freshly chopped parsley – optional

Spices

You can also change up your spices to get the flavor you want, but I have found that this blend gives a great authentic taste.  Note – I leave salt of the mix (other than a little celery salt) because I get enough sodium from the broth and Cajun seasoning blend)

·         3 tsp Cajun seasoning (I use a blend of a couple seasonings – I would suggest Old Bay and the Weber Cajun seasoning.  Taste these before you add, so you know how much heat, salt, etc. you want the Cajun blend to have)

·         ½ tsp celery salt

·         ½ tsp dried basil

·         ½ tsp dried oregano

·         ¼ tsp dried thyme

·         1 dried bay leaf

·         Freshly ground black pepper

For Serving

·         Long grain white rice, cooked

·         Sliced green scallion and/or fresh parsley for garnish (I leave out, but it tends to add a little freshness and visual appeal)

·         Tabasco

I like to chop all my veggies and mix my spices before I start. At the very least, make sure your veggies are chopped and ready to go before you start your roux.

         

Methods

1.      Brown meat – Heat up about a tbsp of veggie oil in a large skillet and brown the sausage over medium-high heat.  Just get the sides a little crispy and brown then throw them in a bowl, toss in Cajun seasoning, cover with foil and set aside.  Steal a few tbsp of sausage grease, set aside and brown the chicken in the remaining sausage grease.  Just cook the outside – DO NOT cook all the way through.  Same drill – remove chicken to a bowl, toss in Cajun seasoning, cover with foil and set aside.

2.      Make roux – First things first… take your bio-break, turn on some tunes, grab a beer/glass of wine and set aside at least 30-45.  Making a good roux isn’t hard; it just requires attention and patience.  If you have a large, heavy-bottomed Dutch oven, use it.  Add the veggie oil to the Dutch oven and cook on low to medium-low.  Let oil heat up, and then slowly add the flour. Constantly stir – I use a wooded spatula so it doesn’t burn. Take it slow and don’t add too much flour at once. Once all the flour is mixed into the oil, keep stirring for about 30-45 minutes. The best roux for gumbo is a dark brown roux – it will be a chocolate color.  It usually takes me about 45 minutes to get it dark enough. Don’t move on too soon, you want this roux to be a chocolate color before you go to the next step. Note – if you see black specks in the roux, you have burned the roux – throw out and start over. If you smell burning at any point, turn your heat down.

When your roux reaches the right color, turn off the heat and add the onion, bell pepper and celery all at once. Keep stirring until the roux cools down.

                        

3.      Assemble and cook the gumbo – To the roux and veggies, add your stock, chicken and sausage (with any juices that accumulated in the bowl while resting), scallions, garlic, jalapeno and spices.  Bring to a Boil, then reduce heat and simmer partially covered for about 45 minutes to an hour.  Stir occasionally. Add the okra and cook for another 30 minutes, partially covered.  Taste and adjust your seasonings then add your shrimp (or other seafood) and parsley.  Remove lid and simmer for an additional 20 minutes or longer to thicken the sauce. 

  

                       

4.      Serve – Pour gumbo over rice. Garnish with Scallions and parsley if desired.  I like to add garlic French bread or cornbread on the side.  

                

  

Store

Like all stews, gumbo thickens and improves over time. If you have leftovers, refrigerate for up to a week – your second meal will be even better!

Extras

·         I like to serve my gumbo with French bread.  Slice fresh, spread butter on one side, sprinkle garlic salt on top and broil in the oven until golden brown.

                              

·         You can also serve with cornbread. Let a stick of butter soften for about 30 minutes, then mix in some honey and serve with the cornbread.

·         For less slimy okra, give it a water/vinegar bath for about an hour.

·         Don’t feel like you need to season the gumbo all at once. If you think it might have too much heat, wait for your first tasting (after the chicken is cooked through) and adjust accordingly.

·         If you have never made a roux, watch a couple videos on YouTube so you will know what to expect – it helped me my first time.

·         Serve a salad with the gumbo (with a light dressing).  It will help lighten up the meal.

·         Change up your seafood – you can substitute crawfish or crab for shrimp.

·         Make your roux ahead of time – you can make your roux in advance. When you get your roux where you want it, just keep stirring with the stove off until it cools down. Store covered in the fridge up to a week. When you are ready to cook your gumbo, just heat up the roux and you are ready to go. 

·         Make it yours – add or omit ingredients to make it your own and bring out the flavors you like best.

I  I also have to add this picture for what Tyler is typically doing while the gumbo simmers: 

In this picture you can see our new light fixture above the table and the new sliding door. All that's left is the floor!

Until next time...

Lucky

Once again, I really need to get better about updating my blog. Time is flying, things are changing and I want to be able to look back on this fun, special and often crazy time in my life. Tyler and I have been married for over 7 months now. In fact, we are already planning our anniversary trip to New Orleans in November. In other news, we added a new member to our family.

Meet Tux.

He is a Mini Australian Shepherd (no we didn't pick him because he's a Shepherd, but it sure is convenient!) Ty has tried to talk me into getting a puppy ever since I can remember. I finally gave in and I'm so glad that I did. He's a wild puppy and needs a lot of attention, but we just love him. Please note in this picture, that he's on our bed. It only took him about three weeks to figure out how to jump onto our bed. The "stay off the furniture" rule only lasted for about 3 hours.

Last night we had my family over for dinner. Tyler grilled burgers and I made Bobby Flay's potato salad recipe from his restaurant, Mesa. (I would highly recommend the recipe if you are looking for a side to bring for a cookout!) It was a special night because Tyler and I have been wanting to do something to thank my dad for all of the time and effort he has dedicated to helping us with our remodeling projects. Anyone who knows my dad, knows how giving and selfless he is. Unfortunately, last year, his work computer was stolen out of his truck and he lost all of his files, pictures, and so much more. We decided the perfect token of our appreciation would be to surprise him with a new work computer. After a lot of research, we opted for the new HP Envy which is a laptop that converts into a tablet. We sent my dad on a scavenger hunt around the house, finally leading him to our next project - the bathroom, where the gift was waiting. The look on his face was priceless. He was excited, and definitely shocked. The time he has dedicated is worth much more to us than the laptop, or anything for that matter, but if anyone deserves it, my dad does.

Tyler has been hard at work on our kitchen remodel, as well as other projects around the house. I often find myself saying, "I just can't wait until we're DONE!" But last night, at the risk of sounding cheesy, I had a minor epiphany. After dinner, Tyler and I sat out by our fire pit with a glass of wine. We were reflecting on the night and talking about our jobs, our house, and all that we having going on in our lives. We took the time to stop and just realize how much we enjoy working on the projects and talking about the future. I have a sign hanging in my closet that reads "Life is a journey, not a destination." It's so easy to get caught up in where we hope to be in 10 years, and how we want our house to look and day dream about trips we want to take. But right now I can honestly say that I am genuinely happy and very much content. Tyler just started a new job that he loves. He is working for Ceva, a veterinary pharmaceuticals company, in inside sales. I just started a new role within Perceptive, and I'm really looking forward to the challenge. We have a great support system of friends and family, which makes life even sweeter. So often we are reminded that life is very fragile, and to make the most out of each day. We are happy, healthy and greatly enjoy making our house a home.

With that said, the kitchen project is ALMOST done. But I have to share a sneak peek. The only projects left are the counter tops and floor. Look how far we've come!

Kitchen Before

Kitchen - Almost Done!!

 
 I'll leave you with this:

Until next time...